My New Viking Club Estate

[Anonymous]

Over last weekend I saw Viking Pipes posting and visited the site. Ended up nicking the wallet but only a bit. It was only $40 and seemed a steal -- don't they all? I'd call it a picked finish but you probably know a better description.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-qvJ1h5zdUyw/UZdx-GoOP5I/AAAAAAAAA3A/d_UvO7wvnK0/s800/IMG_0544.jpg Pretty as a picture. (that I am having a heck of a time trying to display)

The pipe arrived and I filled it with PS' Navy Flake. The ghost hit me right from the false light. One of those perfumey drug store tobacco. You know the one probably -- the one that is more likely to cause diabetics than a lung disorder. And it was there through the whole pipe. And I hate/abhor/rant about the taste associated with them. Not saying those who smoke them are wrong but it is at the other end of my cuppa.

I smoked again this morning. Long story short... I propped the bit up about level with the bowl and filled it with bourbon and left it overnight. For some reason, it was all missing the next morning. The bowl was still damp throughout. Drunk mouse? I lit it with the same tobacco and the ghost was exorcised. Pipe and man can mellow with the application of bourbon.

According to Mattia: The drilling is perfect, but the draw, as with several Armellini's I've encountered, will be a bit strict for some.

When I smoked the pipe I was on the lookout. The pipe drew as well or better than any pipe I've own -- maybe seriously better than most. Didn't understand the reference at all but we all know smoker's and their pipes can wildly disagree. After smoking, I figured out what was going on when I ran a standard cleaner in it. It really didn't want to go in; I mean really didn't. Looked at the hole in the stem and saw why. That is minute. Has to be a numbered drill. The cleaner was really compressed trying to get it through. Barely managed. Not sure of the reason for such a small opening; anybody know one?

 

[Harlock999]

For whatever reason, a lot of older
Italian pipes have narrow drilling in the stem.

 

[Anonymous]

Price point strategy.

People respond to pretty grain, nice shapes and (especially newer guys) large size(s). That co$t$ money to produce.

But your output is impacted by buyers being price-sensitive. Do everything about a pipe well, and you're in Ca$tello Country. But where you'll move the most product is in the Peterson-Stanwell-Savinelli range(s).

What doesn't show in the showcase is the airway. So that's where you cut co$t$. Run a 2 mm. drill through the casting, stop a larger one where the stem's too narrow and call it "close enough for government work."

At first, they probably didn't realise how critical the airway engineering was. But after they did, and what would be involved in making the inside as fine as the outside, they tended to keep the CEFGW approach because it held costs down and enabled them to sell what they made for what most buyers could (or would) afford. Performance suffered, but a lot of people didn't know any better.

A high proportion of the cost of an artisan pipe is actually in its interior.

That said, some of those old "sucking cookie dough through a straw" airways could, and do, smoke well. The constriction can have the effect on the draw that a governor has on an engine -- keep from gunning it, and it runs smoothly.

FWIW

:face:

 

[Anonymous]

Yak, the strange thing is that the airway itself is quite open. It is only small in the bit portion. The opening at the bit is possibly a bit larger than normal. It wouldn't have been a problem to use a large opening thru the bit but he doesn't.

The ad for the pipe says:

Mauro Armellini was an innovator in Italian pipe-making. He invented the oil-curing process for the Savinelli Corallo and Capri Root Briar finishes before leaving the firm and making his own pipes.

so he may have had some hair reason for what he was doing but its beyond me.

(The bit is somewhat curved and I'd be afraid to try to open it. All it really seems to affect for me is using a pipe cleaner.)

 

[Anonymous]

This, in a better pipe, is a calculated strategy. The Sasquatch I recently got is engineered along similar lines, only with a straight, polished interior taper down to around (guesstimating) 2.5 mm & then flaring to the bit, with a deep recess.

It's a notably dry smoker.

:face:

 

[Anonymous]

Simple, cheap way : http://brothersofbriar.forumotion.com/t23250-hi-tech-x-ray-photo-of-a-castello-stem-not-really#308654

1st one carefully done; 2nd one typical crank-em-out work.

:face:

 

[Anonymous]

Simple, cheap way : https://www.brothersofbriar.com/t23250-hi-tech-x-ray-photo-of-a-castello-stem-not-really#308654

1st one carefully done; 2nd one typical crank-em-out work.

:face:

I thought the second might be a shadow more than not as good. Although the narrowed section looked done by a cobbler with some seeming wiggle it its gitalong. The first show a special-order tapered-bit was used which means a lot of intent on their part.

You like cliches. "Neither rhyme nor reason" just doesn't cut it for a whole bunch of eye-talians going down the same path. I think we have to rule out lead or mercury in the water. So what was the perceived benefit that accumulated steps made worthwhile?

My pipe, BTW, draws like a dream. If I never ran a pipe cleaner through the bit, I'd never have guess its constriction.